As season 2 of SAISA sports started I decided to do basketball. Basketball has always been a big part of my life, I mean one of the first human instincts when you see a ball is to bounce it so what other sport is better than basketball? I have played basketball ever since I was a little kid and it has always been a passion of mine.
On November 7th, we began basketball practices, and I was eager to demonstrate my abilities to the coaches this year. A week after our first basketball sessions, which included games to assess skill levels and drills such as the 3-man weave, we went on a science trip (it was a nice break from all that activity too, CAS post on that here). Once we came back from our science trip, it was time to lock back in and I was ready. I traveled with the basketball team last year as well but that didn’t mean I had a free spot on the team as this year’s basketball tryouts were competitive with over 18 people trying out and there were only 10 spots on the traveling team to Amman, Jordan which meant I had to work twice as hard to secure my spot and prove to the coaches that I was someone worth giving that spot to.
After a few scrimmage games, I was beginning to gain confidence in myself, which improved my game a lot as I started attracting the coaches’ attention with my ability to move the ball and call plays. As our time for the tournament kept coming closer the intensity of our practices drastically changed (for the better).
We practiced for the first 2 weeks and were faced with our first game against Gateway College it was a tough fight as they are the local champions in Sri Lanka and our team chemistry had not yet developed, nevertheless we played with our heads high although we had sadly lost by 10 points. However, we were still proud of ourselves as we all tried our best all of us knew that there were various things we could have improved on and so over the next few practices we worked on it.
Our basketball practices were scheduled with different activities for each day. On Tuesdays, we focused on simple drills such as 3-man weaves and dribbling. We also ran through the plays that our coach had designed for us. Fridays were reserved for 5v5 scrimmage games, which helped improve our game sense and decision-making abilities. Saturdays were dedicated to cardiovascular exercise and shooting because basketball requires a lot of running. To prepare for SAISA, our coaches made us do 12 hill runs and 20 sprints, which was quite challenging. Although Saturdays were tough due to the high stamina required, it was all worth it in the end as we were the most physically fit team during the tournament. Additionally, we had to shoot 50 free throws, midranges, and three-pointers to improve our shooting statistics as a team. My mid-range and free throw statistics were never disappointing as I had always shot over 60% although for my three-pointers I could not say the same. My three-pointer statistics were always less than 20% (which was quite bad) as I had always had trouble shooting three-pointers although the more shooting practice I did the more I improved for the second game we had played against Gateway College.
It had been a week since the last game we played and we were now ready for a rematch against Gateway College, I was pretty confident going into this game as I had made major improvements from the last game we played. By the third quarter, Gateway College had a 10-point lead on us but we weren’t ready to give them the win that easily so we had a timeout. Antoine told me to lock down the highest-scoring player on the opposing team and that is exactly what I did, I was on him constantly and got into his head which caused him to make mistakes and gave him openings to score. Although we had lost this game 47-48 we were all proud of ourselves as we played like a team and we had improved drastically from when we first played them
This was our last game before the winter break, and our coaches decided to announce the traveling team before we left for December break. I was anxious as I wasn’t sure if I had made it or not. Thankfully, I did. I was happy and headed into the winter break with high hopes. However, the break disrupted the flow of our training, and we had to do basic fitness activities like running and pushups to stay in shape.
Once we had come back from the break we had all become rusty and getting back into the flow we had been in before was challenging, so we practiced extra hard during our basketball sessions. The first 2 weeks of practice weren’t the best but after we had started getting back into the flow we ran a few practice games with Moir which made me feel more confident to start shooting three-pointers in the game, and we had successfully won our games against Moir and I had shot 3 three-pointers which had contributed to my confidence with the ball in the game.
Once we got back into the flow we were once again interrupted by the WWW trip, which meant that we had to miss 2 sessions of practice that we were in dire need of before the tournament. Which concluded in us only having one session left before we traveled to Jordan for SAISA.
As our SAISA travel day arrived we were all excited but nervous at the same time. We went to school at 7 am and all of us were sleepy and exhausted as we arrived at our gate to go through our transit, Doha. Once we arrived at Doha we had a 45-minute layover so Ansel and I decided to buy some snacks for the next flight which was to Amman. We bought a bunch of candy and drinks (which was more expensive than we thought) and we ate it all before we got onto the flight (we were starving). As we were landing in Amman, I was in awe as the sky was so beautiful. I had never been to a Middle Eastern country before so it was truly a new environment for me.
Finally, we arrived at Amman around 5 P.m. and one thing I didn’t expect was how cold it was, although I succumbed to it as I had lived in Canada previously it was truly surprising as I saw my breath right in front of me. Once we had arrived at the hotel Ansel, Ben and I were knocked out as we were exhausted from traveling.
After an amazing long nap, we had the second day as an introductory day and so we decided to go to the Dead Sea with the Lincoln School Of Nepal, I was quite excited to go to the Dead Sea as Ethan had told me on the bus that you can float on the water without even trying and so I was eager to test it out. After lots of singing and laughing on the bus we arrived at the Dead Sea, it was so beautiful. The sea looked unreal as it was so calm and peaceful with no waves or life to be seen. I was eager to get into the water and so Darius and I quickly changed into our swimsuits and got into the water and that’s when the phenomenon happened. I WAS FLOATING!!, without even trying it was so cool, although the water was extremely salty so when Darius accidentally splashed some water into my eye it started to burn but became better with time.
Once we finished swimming in the Dead Sea we headed to the pool as it was very cold outside, after chilling in the pool and relaxing we headed for lunch which was honestly the best part of the trip for me. The food was amazing and if you have read my other posts you would know that eating food is my favourite thing to do in the whole world so when I saw the Hummus and the different types of food there I went crazy. I ate so much that I felt like exploding, the Hummus and Pita were so addictive that I just couldn’t stop and the Creme Brulee for dessert was so unbelievable that I had 5 of them! I felt like I had gained 3 pounds from eating all that food and all I wanted to do was to just eat more.
Tournament Day 1 – Once we arrived at ACS (American Community School), we were given a tour of the school by one of the students and started the opening ceremony where we were given the Jordanian Keffiyeh as a gift. Once we had ordained ourselves, we were prepared for our first game against KAS (Karachi American School) at 11 am, after a successful win against them we had an 8-hour break between our next game which meant that our muscles would stiffen up because of the cold weather. Our second game was at 7 pm but because of the time difference, it felt like 9:30 pm for us, which I thought would affect us (it did not). Once it was time for our second game against TAISM (The American International School of Muscat) who are our SAISA rivals, we were determined to win against them, the game started shaky but team morale was still high. I had subbed in for Phineus and I was ready to try and secure a win, the points were 39-44 in the second quarter and I was hoping for a comeback, sadly it never happened. We had lost against them by 15 points which made our tournament much tougher. All of us were disappointed as we had not performed to our expectations.
Tournament Day 2 – After a good night’s sleep we were energized and ready to make a comeback, we were disappointed by our loss to TAISM but we still had a chance to win this so our morale was high. We had two games which were both vital for our success in the tournament, our first match was against AISC (American International School Chennai). After a tough fight, we won 48 – 56, and we were all quite excited as that was our best-played game yet. After a break, it was time to play Lincoln (Lincoln School Of Nepal). I was subbed into the game during the second quarter whilst the score was tight but we were in the lead by one point. The game was extremely tight and we decided to full-court press so I was at the top trying to steal the ball any chance I got but it was tough, I was tiring out but I was pushing through, the scores were tight until the fourth quarter and so our coach called for a timeout and made us run a play as there were only 18 seconds left on the clock. In the final seconds of the game, I set a screen for Ethan to get the ball from Antoine and swing it to Darius to take the three-pointers which can help us tie the game, it hits the backboard and bounces out, yet we get a chance at redemption as Ethan gets the rebound and passes it straight back to Darius to shoot another three-pointer with 6 seconds left on the clock which sadly hits the rim and bounces, leaving us all in sad spirits as it was a close game.
Tournament Day 3 – Our first game was at 11 am and so Mr.Russo decided to take us sightseeing before our game as our game was only the third game of the day and so we went to a Roman historical sight which was very beautiful as it had an amazing view of the city of Amman. The view was amazing from the top as it was situated on top of a hill and the whole experience was quite fun as Ansel and I had a nice talk whilst exploring the historical monument.
Once we had finished our sightseeing, we headed to ACS to play our most important game which could determine our place in the tournament, as we started to warm up I was nervous as this game was quite frankly our most important game. We started the game off with a 6-point lead with scores being 16 – 10 in the first quarter. The emotions were high between both teams and the tension was on the rise. I subbed in the third quarter and I was ready, nervous but ready. Sadly ASB had gotten the lead on us but we didn’t give up just yet we kept fighting until the very end, although at the end of the third quarter, the score was 44 – 34. They had a 10-point lead on us but we weren’t ready to let them take the win out of our hands just yet. With the fourth quarter starting rough we had quite a few points to catch up to, and so we did, we had caught up and there was only a one-point difference between us, 45 -46. Sadly their point guard shot two back-to-back threes giving them a comfortable lead and with 2 minutes remaining they had sadly won the game with the score being 47 – 57. This was the end of our tournament for us and although we were disappointed in ourselves as we had placed 6th, we decided to enjoy the remaining time we had on this trip. After our game, we decided to go to the mall and do some shopping so we went to the mall Darius, Ben and I were strolling through the mall and went to a store called “Bershka” which was my FAVOURITE store of all time as I had never seen clothes anywhere else as affordable. I had been shopping in that store for nearly 40 minutes until Ben and Darius physically dragged me out as they wanted to check out more stores. After we had finished our shopping it was time to go although Darius and I had to get our Starbucks so we quickly went and got our Caramel Frappucinos (the bus had to come back and get us because we took too long) and headed back to ACS to watch the finals.
Although we had placed 6th I couldn’t have asked for a better team as this trip was more than just basketball and the memories I created on this trip will last forever so I am truly grateful for this experience and I would 100% do it again.